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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

The Importance of Romance



I get enthralled in the intricate perplexities and seemingly endless labyrinths of love. One such perplexity is romance. Without romance its hard to smooth out the edges of everyday interaction in a loving relationship. I have met a lot of women that say they don't believe in romance but still indulge in a romantic movie or book without reservation. When asked about this paradox they say real life is different, and you have to have more sense than sensibilities.


OK girls, first of all... really? Don't be foolin', I know you have a wedding board on Pinterest with your romantic hopes and dreams you wish would come true. When I whisper something like "My heart is perfect because... you're inside it" to my wife, we both appreciate the romantic sentiment. Being sensitive is a beautiful thing, it allows one to see with a higher form of sight. Romance is a powerful force that softly caresses your senses and comforts you. Something worthy of being cherished. It's too bad that most guys I talk to will use romance as a tool to get in to a girls pants or for someone not to be mad when they are a jerk.

Its true the "real world" is full of its pit falls and traps of sensibilities. People say most guys are more logical than emotional and relying on them to give a fictional standard of romance will be depressing. But girls, you're letting guys get away with too much. They are more capable than they are letting on. There are guys that downplay romance because it is easier. Those same guys will buy flowers for their girl when she gets mad because they secretly know there is value in it. This is because the only time for them to have romance is when its easier than to have her mad. I ask the ladies do you want to be easy? Do you want to be around simply because the other girls around you would be too much of a bother for your man? That would make me feel worthless.



To me romance is classy, refined, tactful, and downright caring. People say chivalry is dead but the near fact that it existed demands that it should still. We need to not allow this emotional barbarism because of the false idea men are incapable. You will be doing your man a favor by getting them to tap into something so emotionally fulfilling.

Monday, July 28, 2014

"The Perfect Anniversary Gift"



It is unbelievable how time flies. Angela and I had our 1st wedding anniversary yesterday. One year ago yesterday we made our unstoppable team official. That day my best decision of my life was realized. I give my last name to my intelligent, beautiful, and capable wife Angela. I wanted to make our anniversary something special to commemorate our time together and show her how much I look forward to our years to come. So yesterday I surprised Angela by not telling her what I had planned for us all day. When we woke up I painted her nails into space nails. I used a black nail polish and on top I used a polish with sparkly dots that look like stars. Then we drove down to the temple where we got married. One of the missionaries at the Visitor's Center was nice enough to offer to take our photo in front of the Christus statue.

It was a wonderful day! There were scattered clouds and it even rained a little on us, and we love rain!

After our short time at the temple we made our way to the Griffith Observatory where Angela's space nails started to make sense.

We ate Milky Way chocolate bars. And played with all the space scales. And soon it became sunset.

After the sun set I presented Angela with her anniversary gift. First I gave her a star necklace.
 
I told her "I named it our Love Star after our star in the sky." Angela was confused that I said this because she knew of no such star. I just smiled and handed her this framed star certificate of our officially named love star in the Andromeda galaxy.


She told me it was "the perfect anniversary gift" and we spent the rest of our time just cuddling and looking up at the stars. And then to we took our drive home. When we got home we had our traditional leftover cake from our wedding. We cut it together hand in hand just as we did on our wedding day one year ago. 

It was a wonderful day and I know we will have many more wonderful days to come.










Wednesday, July 23, 2014

OK Go


Angela and I had a really fun night last night. I took Angela on a date to the Troubadour in West Hollywood to see the band OK Go. The last time we were there was a little over a year ago to see Rachael Yamagata. We really like the Troubadour because we like to get there a little early and get seats on the balcony to lazily enjoy the show in a seat pretty close to the band.

 I've always heard that OK Go puts on a good show and they did not disappoint. For those of you who don't know who OK Go is they are the treadmill people. You can watch them here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA.
OK Go always has little gimmicks when they play their songs.  One of their gimmicks this time was a confetti shooter. Angela lit up every time the confetti blew everywhere. I'm surprised she didn't burst into confetti herself because of how happy she looked. There was so much confetti you couldn't see two feet in front of you. They shot this much confetti a bunch of times throughout the show. At the end we were practically swimming in it. It was so much fun! We were able to snap a cell phone pic of the confetti coming at us in waves.

It was fun to go to a concert but truthfully it would not have been as fun without Angela. Her excitement about the small things makes everything that much better.




Monday, July 21, 2014

Love is in the little things


 The other day I had an eye opening experience that shows how much people pay attention to one another. Someone that I work with approached me to tell me about something a stranger observed. They said, "Those girls downstairs asked me if I worked with you and your wife. When I told them yes you should have seen those girls, they smiled so big! They told me, 'They are so cute! We work right by a window that looks out to the parking lot and we see every time without fail he opens the car door for her.'" I am so glad that he told me what those girls said. It was something I didn't ever really notice, I mean what's a couple of seconds when getting in and out of our car? But that it was such a big deal that they would tell someone and then that person would tell me makes me feel really good.

The little things really are so important in our relationship. Those little acts of kindness like telling her I love her often, holding her hand while we're at the grocery store or in the car, or when I notice that some aspect of her looks are particularly nice that day, and then letting her know I noticed. Specific compliments go a long way. Today I noticed that Angela is wearing the necklace I made for her at Heather's craft night. It makes me so happy to know she likes it.



It's these little things that really count. Even those with a lack of imagination can throw enough money at something to show off how romantic they supposedly are, but it is more important to treat your significant other with love and respect at all times, even when you don't think anyone is watching. I can't always do grand romantic gestures for my wife, but I strive to win her heart a little more every day.



Friday, July 18, 2014

Our Special Place



I teared up a little today thinking about how Angela and I love each other more every day. When I was younger I thought people just said that as a romantic sentiment or platitude. But it’s real.  I noticed today that Angela and I have a very special place. This place didn’t start special at first, but after Angela and I have taken a short walk every day for the past 6 months, this place has become sacred.  During these walks we talk about the day so far, what we have done, and what our plans will be for the day ahead. At the farthest part of our walk before we loop back around we pass by a movie theater. After we walk past the main entrance, we go down an outdoor hallway before turning around and taking our short journey back to our car.
 

The first few times down this hallway we noticed the pleasant scent of movie popcorn. Soon after we noticed they always play movie soundtracks overhead, a lot of times Disney soundtracks.  We found ourselves dancing hand in hand with my hand on her waist and her's on my shoulder. Lively and playful on the fast songs and tender and graceful on the slow songs, but always very loving with kisses throughout. We are only there for maybe a minute at most. We just smile and stare into one another’s eyes and continue our walk.

I should have noticed sooner but it wasn’t all at once. Just as that walk has gotten more beautiful as time has gone by, every aspect of our relationship has grown. Our hearts have grown with every experience we share together.  As inseparable as we were yesterday, I know as we share our hearts today; tomorrow our love will grow.

Monday, July 14, 2014

A Male Feminist

I am a male feminist, and I am in good company with Patrick Stewart, Elliott Smith, John Lennon, Mark Ruffalo, and Ryan Gosling to name a few. Sexism is real. I am a technician for a merchant services company. When I am there, I can overhear the all-female customer service department talking to people on the phone.  There are a lot of times when they have to hand the phone to one of their male coworkers because the person on the other end will not listen to a woman.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said,
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” I truly believe that this applies to gender as well. I have my own dream that my sons and my daughters will not be judged by their gender, but by the content of their character. Feminism is “the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.” Yes, there are extremists in any group and there are people that believe they have to hate/demonize men or believe they are superior. By definition these people are not feminists. 

Angela and I like to go on walks. One day when we were walking at the Janss mall a security guard started talking to me, completely ignoring Angela and very seriously said that a proper woman should make you bread 2 times a day, stay at home, and be objects for men.  The other day, I told a guy a nice thing I was planning to do for my wife and he said, “and then you get yours”, as if the only reason that I would want to make my wife happy is for sex. No, just no.

A few months ago I ordered these flowers to be dropped off at my wife’s office at work.






 I did this and do other things because I genuinely love to see Angela happy, it brings me great joy. But to a lot of guys women are just things to manipulate to get sex and the end justifies the means.  I’ve even had a guy at church have some “bro talk” with me and said, “You know, I find that I can lie to a girl for three months and get whatever I want from them but they figure it out after 3 months.” That guy is now married, I can only guess how that relationship is going…


The press asked Joss Whedon “why do you write these strong female characters? And he responded “Because you're still asking me that question”. I share these examples to show that Feminism is not a dead issue. Though there have been great strides for equality for both genders throughout history, on the social level, women are still grossly mistreated. 

This is why I call myself a feminist. I strive to show all women in my life the respect they deserve and to go against the social norm for gender equality. I love my wife Angela so much; she deserves love and respect from all. It makes me proud to identify with these ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending a state of equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Pride and Prejudice

Something Angela really likes are old books. I wish I could show Angela a large library full of books like the Beast shows Belle in Beauty and the Beast. Something Angela has shared with me as I have gotten to know her world is also the world of Jane Austen. We watch the movie Sense and Sensibility now as our "late night I don't know what to watch" movie. Because of this, we love sneaking in a Jane Austen quote or two during the day. For example, I will ask Angela what she thinks of someone and she'll say,  "I do not attempt to deny that I think very highly of him, that I... greatly esteem him... I like him" and I will reply, " 'Esteem him?' 'Like him?' Use those insipid words again and I shall leave the room this instant!" :P

We stared reading books to one another as I could see her love of books and I secretly started my search for a quality vintage book, I knew I wasn't a prince and couldn't give her a large library full of books but I could give her at least one nice one. In my searching, I finally found this copy of Pride and Prejudice.


Bound in genuine leather and accented with 22kt gold. A Collector Edition that is as magnificent to see as it is to read. I was so excited to present this book to her. I decided also it would be nice for tonight's reading if I were to make her some African amber herbal tea.

 I sat her down and presented the book to her. She loved it!

 We sat and enjoyed the view and the tea.


And I read to my beautiful wife and we had a really wonderful evening.


Sunday, July 6, 2014

Blanket Fort

Angela and I have been working on this for a few weeks now. From getting PVC pipe from Home Depot to creating blue prints of the frame. When we do things we like to do it right. Angela and I will sometimes jokingly speak to one another condescendingly. It was fun to watch a brawny male stranger look up at me like "Are you going to take that?" After I looked like I was not only fine with it but playing along, he dropped it and continued about his business.

That's the kind of relationship Angela and I have. We have a strict no pride policy. We have pride in that. :P We understand that we need to take things seriously, but only when it's necessary. We like to take things lightly whenever possible and live every day to the fullest. Yes, there are bad things in this world and we struggle to know if we can change them, or if we need to accept them and move on. That's where building a blanket fort comes in. This is that joy we fight for every day. We choose to live it up best we can. And I have to tell all of you the safest I have ever felt is within the walls of our fort. Knowing physically there's not much protection but mentally and emotionally the support system is bullet proof.


We rented How to Train your Dragoon because Angela had not seen it yet.


We then made more gluten free heart pizza so we could nom


And then we got our fort all ready.


And Angela got her footy pajamas on! :3



Saturday, July 5, 2014

Picnic

It is no secret that I love my wife. In fact, I think I would shout it from the mountain tops if I thought that anyone would hear me. I guess I'll have to stick with the not-so-literal mountain tops, also known as the internet. My wife and I may not be perfect individually, but we are perfect for each other. Yes, we have our trials. Some days, everything seems to go wrong and we're grumpy, but we bounce back and buoy each other up.

We are having a very good forth of July weekend. To keep you all apprized of our adventures, we saw the 3rd of July fireworks in Moorpark and the 4th of July fireworks in Thousand oaks. It's been nice to stay in town and visit with our families. I just wanted to make a post for what we did today. I told Angela that I would like to go for a picnic but didn't tell her where. I had bought a gingham tablecloth that I've been excited to surprise her with for a while now. I got the old picnic basket out and we drove to Zuma beach.

We had a lot of fun at the beach and the sandwiches were delicious. P: